Graham Kennedy Award

The Graham Kennedy Award is an in-course award for returning full-time or part-time Canadian citizens, permanent residents and international students in the Faculty of Fine Arts - Department of Design and Computational Arts (DCArt).

The award is for Mature student, with preference given to applicants who identify with the 2SLGBTQ+ community (by way of expressing in writing why the award is meaningful to them)

The donor of this award - Graham Kennedy was born in Scarborough, ON, in 1965, and lived in Toronto for most of his life; he did spend time in Vancouver at the turn of the millennium, and lived in St. John's, NL, from 2011 to 2015. While in St. John's, Kennedy was the recipient of two grants, from the NL Arts Council and from the City of St. John's, for projects with a mixed media approach. An active contributor to local newspaper The Independent, Kennedy also sat on the Board of Directors of Eastern Edge Gallery, a St. John's based artist-run centre, from 2014 to 2015. Before his passing, Kennedy was at work on a project he called "I'm Fading, I'm Gone," in which he photographed friends and family using 4x5 black and white Polaroid film that would, itself, fade after images were captured. Kennedy placed the camera on a large tripod in his palliative care unit — Graham really liked the way the light came in through two large windows at certain points in the day. Kennedy was admitted to the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University to pursue a degree in Computational Arts. After he passed away, some of Graham's photography equipment was donated to the photography facilities at the Department of Studio Arts so that others could continue to benefit. Graham’s family also established an undergraduate scholarship for mature students entering fine arts programs in his honour, and in doing so, support all those who are entering a new path in their creative lives.

Concordia offers need-based In-Course Bursaries to returning Bachelor's students in the Fall semester.

Application deadline The 2024-2025 Undergraduate In-Course Bursary Program will be open April 1, 2024.

In-Course Bursaries are awarded by the Financial Aid and Awards Office to previously admitted students following an application-based competition that includes a financial need test and holistic committee review. Applicants are notified of the results after the Financial Aid and Awards Office receives results from the bursary committee.

The In-Course Bursary program normally open April 1, 2024 and will close on May 15, 2024.